"Picking Cotton" is one of Erskine Caldwell's earlier short stories, included in We Are the Living (1933), conspicuous for its humorous treatment of the theme—highly controversial, and illegal in a lot of the United States at the time of writing—of inter-racial sex.
Workers prefer the Williamses to other farmers, despite the fact that they pay thirty five cents for hundred pounds while other farmers may offer forty or even fifty cents; this, because the Williamses are unique in offering at dinner "a free, good sized watermelon, for every man, woman and child"—an obvious attraction to those having to do hard work under the hot sun.
On other occasions, Harry is paired off with a fifteen-year-old red-headed girl called Gertie, who is in the habit of repeatedly asking him riddles while picking cotton.
Moreover, Gertie is in the habit of lifting her calico skirt to fan her face with, revealing to Harry that she is wearing nothing underneath—which makes it hard for him to concentrate on picking cotton.
Gertie, unruffled, continues to provoke Harry, who does not realize that she is manipulating his racism and jealousy in order to make him "outbid" Sonny and give two hundred pounds for her favors—which at the conclusion of the story he does.